Listening to your views on budget
THE council is currently out and about across Rhondda Cynon Taff seeking the views of residents before early in the new year agreeing our budget strategy for the new financial year.
It is very apparent from these events, alongside the conversations councillors are having on the doorstep, that the difficulties austerity causes to any public sector organisation are well understood.
It is clear to me that people very much understand the difficulties we face and fully appreciate these circumstances are not of our making and sympathise with the predicament elected members are in.
A question which continues to arise is how, when our funding has been cut so dramatically, are we able to take forward such as massive programme of investment in a wide range of services.
As a result of the proactive response we took to austerity some years ago and through decisions such as restructuring senior management, increasing the efficiencies target and restructuring the council’s borrowing and addressing our budget gap early, one-off money has been saved to take forward these improvements and support the RCT Invest programme. This approach is exactly what residents tell us they want at our various roadshows.
It is correct that the council does face just under a £3m revenue budget gap for the next financial year, despite the protection afforded to local government funding by the Welsh Government, and we are working hard to address this shortfall in funding.
However, this funding shortfall is recurring and cannot be solved by one-off funding. If £3m of this one-off funding was used to address next year’s budget gap it would simply increase the size of the following year’s gap; it would not in any way address the ongoing reduction in funding we face.
To put it simply, it’s similar to paying an ongoing bill but finding you can’t afford to cover the costs due to reduced funding being available, so you use some savings to help short term. But this is not a long-term solution as the shortfall still remains ongoing.
The £7.5m funding which was agreed by cabinet and council recently to take forward major schemes such as Taff Vale in Pontypridd, replacing two bridges and the allocation towards building the Cross Valley Link in the Cynon Valley, has been secured thanks to our proactive approach in making efficiencies in response to the cuts we have faced.
My colleagues and I are committed to being ambitious for the county and this strategic investment has the potential to drive forward economic growth and regeneration which will benefit the whole of Rhondda Cynon Taff.